


Dark Waters

by 101SakuraKiss



Category: Persona 2, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 4 Arena, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Persona 5 (maybe), Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, persona 4 golden
Genre: Coma, Emotional pain, End of World Type Deal, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Persona Series - Freeform, Physical Pain, Rain, Shadows - Freeform, no-major-character-death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4492989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/101SakuraKiss/pseuds/101SakuraKiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minako Arisato has finally woken up from her long two year coma and Yu Narukami escapes from his home in the city back to his Uncle. Both are plagued with nightmares of a dark figure that emergest from the water.</p><p>Naoya Toudou returns to his friends after having disappeared after their final battle and Tatsuya Suou continues his internal battle, fighting with who he really is. Both dream of a never ending rain.</p><p>The water is rising and turning black, the shadows have entered the real world and all people can see them this time. Buildings are being destroyed and all Persona users must unite if they want to have any chance of winning. Can the four main heroes work together and keep their company safe from the Shadow of Shadows? And who is that lurking in the dark?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy ;P

Minako's P.O.V.

Wake up! Wake up! You need to wake up! Hurry!  
“Who's there?” I ask, my voice echoing around me in the dark abyss.  
Wake up! Wake up! Hurry! Hurry!  
“I' m already awake.” I look around before clutching my arms, the temperature dropping rapidly, the air gets thinner, making it hard to breath. “What's happening?” My body shakes before going numb, my hands shoot to my throat as my airway is suddenly cut off.  
Wake up! Hurry! Wake up! Hurry! the voice comes again.  
I can't breath! I blink as my surroundings became blurry and wavy, almost as if I’m underwater. “I'm drowning!” I try to cry out, but when I open my mouth the icy water fills my lungs. The pressure builds and my lungs begin burning and a chill overcomes my body. I feel like I’m turning to ice from the inside out.  
Wake up! Hurry! the voice cries again and again, beginning to sound distant.  
...must...ur...ke...up! the voice makes one final struggle before everything goes silent and the voice disappears.  
My vision fades and my mind goes foggy as my sight dims. This is it, I’m going to die.  
No more. Someone please help me. No...more...  
Wake up  
There’s a flash of light above me and a pale hand reaches out. I raise my hand with the last of my strength and grab on. I sense something dark appear below me as the hand pulls me up into the light above me. Warmth spreads throughout my body and my lungs burst into action, breathing in fresh air. I open my eyes, fuzzy blobs fill my vision as muffle sounds cloud me mind. I close my eyes again, relaxing into the softness beneath me.  
You have a job  
I snap my eyes back open as an unseen voice speaks with force and urgency. My vision focuses and a white ceiling appears above me. Something grabs my hand startling me, I jerk slightly and I look over to a familiar face...a comforting face.

Yu's P.O.V.  
My body felt so heavy, as if it was being held down by a strong unseen force. As I was getting my bearings straight I realized I was lying back on a cold, hard floor. The room was dark and it felt empty, almost as if the room didn't really exist. I couldn't remember where I was, the only thing I could remember was getting on a train. I must have fallen asleep...but I don't remember being tired enough to fall asleep.  
The dark room suddenly filled with an eerie echo of laughter. I looked around trying to see who was laughing but the room was still empty, but it sounded like a large crowd of people were laughing at me, watching me. Suddenly the floor beneath me dropped and I squeezed my eyes shut. The laughing got louder and soon began to fill my head. Hands reached out under me and grabbed my wrists and ankles.  
Shadows! I thought tensing up. “Izanagi!” I tried to call out to no avail. I couldn't feel my persona anymore. I tried to pull away from them but my body refused to move. Another shadow reached up and slowly wrapped its tentacle around my throat. I let out a gasp as something cold and wet appeared beneath me. Water. The invisible laughter disappeared but the hands continued to hold me down as the water continued to slowly rise. The water was ice cold and my body began shaking. I kept called out to Izanagi but he didn't answer me.  
I gasped in shock as the shadows jerked me down into the water, laughter starting up again sounding louder than before as mask that appeared to be laughing popped up around me. My lungs filled up with water and made me start coughing underwater. I closed my mouth against the foul tasting water. The shadows pulled me back up and I spat out the water and breathed in lungs full of air. I held my breath as the shadows pulled me back down into the water. I held my breath and forced my body to relax, I couldn't waste my little oxygen with being tensed. My muscles loosened and my heart rate slowed down but I was still only able to hold me breath for a couple of minutes before my lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to hold on a littler longer. The laughing got louder and louder before it suddenly went silent. I opened my eyes and I knew what little color, if any, that I had left in my face drained away.  
Large silver eyes stared at me from within the darkness, The water had gone still and the shadows let me go, disappearing into the water's depths. My heart rate quickened and then it suddenly stopped, leaving me for dead. Suddenly the eyes disappeared and large teeth appeared, snapping shut around me.


	2. Der Doppelganger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember? Do you remember who are? Do you remember who you were?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A familiar poem...
> 
> ;P Enjoy

Der Doppelganger:  
“O you Doppleganger! You pale comrade!”

Still is the night, it quiets the streets, down  
In that window my love would appear.  
She’s long since gone away from this town,  
The house where she lived still remains here.

A man stands here too, staring up into space.   
And powerfully wringing his hands in torment,  
It chills me, when I behold his pale face-  
For the moon shows me my own features again.

You spirit double, you specter with my face,  
Why do you mock my love-pain so  
That tortured me here, here in this place  
So many mights, so long ago?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Sakura
> 
> ;P Bye Bye


	3. She Cries-He Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minako wakes up from a two year coma to the surprise of her friends who have prepared themselves to bury their dear friend.
> 
> Yu returns to Inaba after having been gone for awhile, his arrival a secret to everyone but his Uncle and cousin. What's he hiding?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter One:
> 
> Enjoy ;P

**Akihiko's P.O.V.**

Despite being early morning the sky was still dark and the sun showed no sign of appearing through the thick gray clouds blanketing the sky. The air was cold and still, heavy, almost suffocating as I stood in front of a small grave. I find it funny how fitting this scene was for today, I knelt down and placed a colorful bouquet down before bowing my head.

            “It has been awhile Miki.” I whisper, it's been a long time since I've visited my sister's grave, I had forgotten how heavy the visits weighed my heart. Today though, it made my already heavy heart heavier, weighing down on my chest. “Sorry it took me so long, how have you been?” I asked clearing off dead leaves and twigs as I spoke. “I hope you're happy wherever you are. But I'm sure you are, you were almost always happy. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I couldn't save you that day.” These words that so often passed my lips when I thought of the sweet little sister I lost in a fire because I was too weak to save her. I swore to myself I would never be that weak again, but I failed.

            Now, because of my weakness, because I wasn't strong enough I'm going to lose _her_. “You would have really liked her.” I said with a smile. “She would have adored you too.” My smile disappeared and my heart became heavier. My mind flashed back to everything that had happened in the past three years, the good the bad, and her, the girl that it all evolved around.

            Her smile, her laughter, how she walked and talked. Everything about her filled me head. The way she hugged me, her gentle touches, even the time I woke up on the floor of Tartarus to her fearful face when I wouldn't wake up. The weight of my heart settled in my stomach as I remembered the last times I saw her awake.

            _2 years ago:_

            _It was the final battle against Nyx, we were basically getting out asses handed to us, it seemed like no matter what attack we used against her it did no damage. We kept close to Minako's plan but she seemed to always have to change it because it wouldn't work. She constantly switched healers, Yukari, Mitsuru, Ken, me, and then her. But that was at the beginning, as the fight grew longer the more quiet she became, while I thought she was becoming fatigued I realized she was starting to doubt herself. When she got hit she never flinched but when Nyx hit us she would cringe. Soon Nyx started taunting us and Minako fought back on that end as well. No matter how tired we got Minako kept pushing though, and because of her so did we. And in the end we won, how we won is still foggy as is with the rest of the night and the following day apart from some bits and pieces that remained clear. After Nyx was defeated a strange whisper filled the air, none of us could hear the words, not even Aigis, except, it seemed as if Minako did, and understood what was said. Her face fell and the color mostly drained from her face and she stumbled before catching herself. She looked over at me and smiled, it was strained but it was still a smile. That night, right before I fell asleep, I heard a light knock before the door opened, Minako stood there in a white nightgown, her brown hair falling to her shoulders, her eyes were dimmed with exhaustion but she was still beautiful. She gave me shaky smile before closing the door, her following words surprised me more than anything else she had ever said to me._

_“I'm scared.” she had whispered looking down at the floor. I was shocked, sure she had said the same thing before after fighting the first full moon shadow. But for some reason this fear seemed so much more different than the fear she must have felt that time. I held out my hand to her and she flung herself into me, wrapping her arms tightly against my back. That was the first time I ever saw her cry, even when Shinjiro went into a coma she didn't cry, at least not in front of us. That night, the first night in a long time that I slept next to someone, for the first time in a long time, I felt at peace. Then a few days later Shinjiro woke up and was released from the hospital. The dorm threw a huge party, everyone was so happy, we defeated Nyx and Shinjiro woke up. The thought of another tragedy hitting us never crossed our minds. But the thought of another tragedy hitting so close to our hearts didn't even exist until the day Mitsuru, Shinjiro, and I graduated. We held another celebration, this time right after the ceremony, we were going to head up to the roof where Minako and Aigis were waiting for us, as we opened the door we saw Aigis holding Minako to her, tears sliding down her face._

_Present:_

Now, after two years, when we thought she was finally going to get better, she got worst. She started out being in a coma, unresponsive to the world, no matter what the doctors did she remained that way for the first eight months, but halfway through September she appeared to be getting better. She would open her eyes for a little bit but then she went back into a coma without an warning. And now at the beginning of the third year her fate is now finalized, today Minako will die, after two years, her fight has now become meaningless. I knew she was living off that machine, but deep down I wanted to believe she was trying to live on her own as well.

            “I don't know what to do Miki.” I spoke out loud. “I want to be there, I have to be there, for her. But I don't know if I can, I don't know if I'm strong enough.” I clutched my head as I spoke to Miki, thunder echoed not far off. I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear that someone had walked up to me.

            “I thought you'd be here Aki.” Shinjiro's voice came behind me, breaking me from my thoughts.

            “Shinjiro...” I said looking at him as knelt down beside me.

            “It's been awhile,” he started, staring at the grave. “Since we've been here together.”

            “Where is Ken?” I asked, he shot me a look replied non-the-less.

            “He's staying home today.” he replied. “He wants to be there with Minako and I don't have the heart to tell him no. Plus I doubt he'd make it through a full day anyway.”

            “Especially since he knows the time.” I said without looking at Shinjiro. “He'll just become distraught. Ken was really close to her.”

            “He views her as a woman who became a mother figure after he lost his real mom.” Shinjiro remarked.

            “Ken confessed to her once.” I said with a small laugh.

            “Haha, he told me about that.” he chuckled. “But then he said his feelings changed after awhile, she started to remind him more of his mother and in the end Minako took that place as a friend and mother figure. We all loved her Aki.” he continued, playing with a leaf. “She filled in a piece of our hearts that had become empty. She became a best friend, a mother figure, a sister...a lover. She become something to all of us.” I remained silent and stared off into space. Minako did fill the emptiness in everyone's heart, she became a mother figure to replace the emptiness Ken felt after losing his mother, she became the little sister Shinjiro lost to a fire, she became a best friend to Fuuka who never had one before. She listened to Yukari when no one else would and Minako trusted in Junpei despite his personality, she believed in him when no one else really did. She became the sister and friend Mitsuru never had, who stuck by her when Mitsuru had lost all faith in herself. Even Koromaru took a liking to her immediately, she did everything his previous owner did with him and more. After awhile Aigis became more human after spending so much time with Minako. To me...to me she started out as a girl who was given the short straw of life. She lost her parents and was forced into a war that she had no idea coincided with that accident so long ago that evolved around her. To me, she was a small girl, almost a child, with a small frame and large brown eyes that always remained empty no matter what was shown on her face. I saw her as a hyper person that was always tired, a smart girl who wasn't sure what she knew, a strong girl who was so fragile. Minako was constantly walking the tightrope, she would teeter off the edge and straighten back up only to teeter off the other edge. It was a balancing act she had to constantly relearn.

            The first time I met her I could tell she was hiding behind an array of personas, each one her, yet at the same time, someone else. When she agreed to join I could tell it was because she felt she had no other choice. She was terrified and I didn't blame her, she found out about the shadows in the worst way possible. Yet she still managed to pull through, making it seem as if she had everything under control. I'm not sure when I started seeing her as woman instead of a child. When I met up with her outside of the school gate and asked if she wanted to hang out sometime it was only because I was worried that with her being the new and having to balance shadow fighting and school work all at once it might take its toll on her and then we wouldn't be able to work as efficiently as we should. At least that's what I told myself.. The first time we hanged out together after school was interesting, but I didn't really learn anything about her apart from the fact that she had a really tiny stomach and she was a fast runner. But she never really talked much about herself. Over time I grew closer to her and closer, when I heard that she might be dating Junpei something inside of me changed, a sense of dread almost. I hadn't meant to confront her about it but it slipped out, and when she denied it a relief so great went though me it terrified me. And I couldn't understand where it had come from, but from then on my feelings started changing and I kept seeing her less and less like Miki and more like a strong woman leading a group of fighters who could die at any time. And then slowly I fell in love with her more and more, giving away to the false illusion that I was strong enough to save her from the same fate that had taken Miki away from me.

            A bell rang off in the distance and Shinjiro stood up looking in the direction where the echo could be heard. I stood up as well as he turned back and looked at me his face growing sad. “It's time.” he whispered softly. “We need to go.” And what should have taken only half an hour felt like minutes by the time we entered the tram to head back to the hospital. We were silent on the way back, we both felt the same dread and none of us had the strength to fight it off. It might have been easier on both of us if we at least attempted to make more conversation but without either knowing what to say we kept to ourselves in silence. As the tram started coming to a stop I found myself praying that some kind of miracle would happen, that we wouldn't have to do this today, that something would delay us. My prayers went unanswered as the tram stopped and the doors opened. Shinjiro stepped out first and I followed him, the walk to the hospital took an even shorter amount of time and before I knew it that familiar smell of latex filled my head. Fuuka was the first to great us, her eyes red and her shoulders shook with unheard sobs. Shinjiro pulled her into a one armed hug and she shook a little, resisting the urge to cry.

            “Mitsuru is on her way and Junpei and Yukari are already here.” Fuuka said. “Ken is in the waiting room playing with Koro-chan.”

            “What about Aigis?” I asked. Aigis would be devastated if we did this without her, she blamed herself for what happened and said she had to be here till the end. I felt bad for Aigis, no one but herself blamed her for what happened, but then again we were all like that, we didn't blame anyone else for what happened to Minako, but we all held the blame in ourselves.

            “I'm here.” Aigis' emotionless voice came from behind us, I turned and saw Aigis standing behind us, her eyes matching her voice, but her stance made her appear lost and dazed. Junpei and Yukari walked in as well, Yukari still had tears rolling down her face and Junpei looked pale and exhausted, like he used to after every full moon fight, though I'm any one of us would rather take on another one of those shadows then face what had to be done today.

            “I'm going to go get Ken.” Shinjiro said quietly, pulling away from Fuuka and walking over to the waiting room.

            After Shinjiro left Fuuka turned to look at me and gave a small, almost forced smile . “How are you holding up Akihiko?”

            I smiled and gave her a hug, Fuuka always worried about others, even though she was having just as hard of a time. “Don't worry about me, I'll be ok.” It wasn't really a lie but ut wasn't entirely honest either. “Let's just get through today.” Fuuka nodded and a couple tears slipped down her face. Shinjiro came out holding onto one of Ken's hands, Ken's other hand was holding firmly onto Koromaru's leash. Ken looked empty and lifeless while Koromaru had his ears down and his tail had lost its usual wag. Ken looked up at me, a pained look on his face, the look of a past memory showing itself in his head like a movie out on repeat. Not long ago he was here for his mother, now he was here for a girl he used to crush on then grew to respect.

            The soft clip of heels started behind us and we turned, Mitsuru approached her face mirroring the expression we all had, one that became familiar to us in the past three years, the face of grief and emotionally excruciating pain. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, not even Mitsuru knew what to say in this circumstance. She looked down before looking back up. “It's your call Akihiko, we do this when you say.” I flinched and looked away, when it came to Minako I called the shots, and while I was grateful for that, the thought that her life would end when I chose seemed much harder than anything I've done before, harder than fighting Nyx, harder than facing myself.

            Shinjiro reached out and squeezed my shoulder and I nodded. “Let's get this done.” I said forcing my voice to stay steady and calm. And though my voice didn't waiver my mind was, I wasn't ready to let go of Minako, I would never be ready to let go of her. We slowly made our way to the room Minako had been staying in for the past two years, and for once I could actually sense the death people felt whenever they walked into a hospital, people would always tell me that they were afraid to go into hospitals because it always had that feel to it, the feeling of Death walking the halls, taking those that were to old and weak to live on. I always dismissed it as a stupid image their brain had come up with, but now I understood what they meant, the feeling that of people dying and knowledge that you were right. I felt myself inhale deeply as I approached her door and turned the doorknob without hesitation, they expected me to do this, to remain strong, that's what Minako expected and no matter how much it hurt I would live up to her expectations even if I wouldn't for anyone else.

            The doctor and nurse were already in there, both wearing somber expressions, they had done this thing before, they told us that, but despite that....they still wore the expression of sorrow. The doctor had said this was the best thing for Minako, for us as well, Minako was brain dead and nothing could bring her back. We had to let go. We had to......but it would be hardest thing for us to do. I walked up to Minako's bed and looked down her face, she still looked beautiful, her skin had become paler but still remained flawless, her brown hair had grown out and came down below her shoulder blades, it would be longer but Mitsuru would cut it to just below the shoulder blades, Minako had always wanted long hair but felt it was too much of a bother to keep while she was fighting shadows. Too bad she would never get the chance to see herself with long hair, she would have liked it.

            “Whenever you guys are ready.” the doctor said gently moving over to the other side of Minako. “Mr. Sawada, do you still wish to be the one to pull the plug?” I looked up at him, his eyes didn't show impatience, he probably prepared himself for a long wait, but seeing as how he had been Minako's doctor for the past 2 years he realized quickly how much she meant to us and since he was a doctor he had no choice but to go at our own pace.

            “Yes.” I replied, when we made the decision to stop life support everyone agreed that I should be the one to pull the plug, Yukari and Fuuka both broke down too much and knew when the time came they would never be able too and Ken was too young to have to deal with something like this. Aigis was still getting over the guilt from believing this was her fault and Mitsuru and Shinjiro both agreed since I was the closest to her I should be the one to do it. I had been hoping it would be someone else, and I could have easily just asked the doctor to do it, but I knew I would regret that decision for the rest of my life so I agreed to do it and the court allowed it since she had no family to do it instead.

            “Then when you are ready.” he replied again. “There is no rush, we'll be outside. Let us know when you're done.” the nurse gave us a small smile and together they left the room. I looked back down at Minako, it was hard to believe that she wasn't asleep, January-August in the first year Minako just remained in a coma, unmoving, unaware but that changed one day in September, she woke up but she didn't know any of us where there, when we asked the doctors what was wrong they said that she had entered the state known as the vegetative state, she was awake from the coma but she was not aware of what was going on around her, we hoped this was a sign of her getting better but after the first month of staying that state she was changed to being in a persistent vegetative state and stayed that way till the following January. Then, up until June she entered the Akinetic Mutism, she would whisper simple words and her eyes would focus though on the ceiling, no one knew what she was talking about but we saw it as a plus and were happy that she was making improvements, but despite her whispers she refused to move, it wasn't that she couldn't move she just simple wouldn't and she remained that way for six months. That July she went back into a coma, the doctors couldn't understand why, they had never seen something like this before and didn't know how to react to it. They did more tests and in the end had no answers to their questions and once again darkness overcame us. We didn't think Minako would get worse than a coma, but she did and the shock came as a heavy blow to all of us. January 3rd Minako went brain dead in the early hours of the morning. At 3 in the morning my phone went off, a call from the hospital that changed everything I had forced myself to focus on. Everything......I put my hand in my pocket where a small box was being kept.....everything was over before it could even begin.

            “Aki?” Shinjiro said and snapped back into reality, I hadn't realized it but sometime during my thoughts silent tears had managed to betray my calm exterior. “Aki we don't have to do this...”

            “No.” I said my voice cracking, I couldn't hide that anymore, with the tears there was no point, I couldn't be as strong as the group wanted or as strong as Minako wanted me to be. “If I can't do it today then I won't be able to, I....if keeping her on life support is going to make her suffer then....” I trailed off, I couldn't say anymore. I hated myself for being weak when I tried so desperately to become strong. But in the end I really didn't care anymore, in the end I would only join her, my time would eventually come and I will be able to see her again. That was the only thing that allowed me to wake up this morning, that thought alone. I looked again at Minako's face before leaning down and gently brushing my lips against hers.

            “I love you Minako.” I whispered so only she could hear me. “More than anything else, I love you.” Then I reached out and turned off the life support machine, silence filled the room except for the beeping of Minako's heart which kept becoming slower and slower before the beeping stopped followed by the sound of the flat line. February 2nd, 2:30 in the afternoon Minako died. I stared at her face before my vision became blurred by tears and my knees gave out and collapsed on the ground burying my face in my arms against the bed. Koromaru let out soft whimpers, Ken let out a small cry and fell down holding onto Koromaru. Shinjiro whispered soothing words in a cracked voice to Fuuka while Junpei tried his best to keep his voice together while he comforted the other 3 girls who both leaned on each other for support. Through the blur I could see the doctor and nurse come in and unhook Minako from the machine and IVs, she wasn't going to need either anymore, neither said a word and left as quick as they could. No one moved or spoke for the next few minutes, I had almost forgotten that others where even there until I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder. I jumped slightly and looked behind me, Shinjiro stood there his eyes swarming with tears as well.

            “Come on.” he said gently. “Let's go, we need to get everything ready for the funeral, there's nothing else we can do here.” Shinjiro pulled me up and I looked at Minako one last time before I turned around to leave this room. I didn't get far when I heard a small voice call my name.

            “Aki...” Ken said and I turned to look at him, he was staring at Minako and hadn't moved from his position on the floor holding Koromaru.

            “Ken come on.” I said gently walking over to him. “Lets go.”

            “Her hand.” he whispered still staring. “It moved.” I flinched and hugged him.

            “It didn't move Ken.” I said holding him tightly. “I'm sorry Ken, you shouldn't have had to come. She's gone, she's not coming back.”

            “No her hand moved.” he insisted clutching onto my arm.

            “Ken.” Fuuka said moving to his other side. “It happens, the chemicals will affect the nerves which can make the arms move. It wasn't Minako.”

            “It was.” he whispered lowering his head. “She's not dead, she can't die, after all this, she can't....” Ken broke down unable to say anymore. Fuuka moved him out of my arms and helped him stand up whispering to him as she moved to the door, I watched them as they stood in front of the door and I took two steps forward before looking back. I felt my heart stop and I stared at Minko.

            “Aki?” Shinjiro said stepping towards me. “What is it?” I didn't reply and watched Minako, _please, please don't let that have been my imagination, please god let it have been real_. And after a few more agonizing seconds it happened again, her eyes opened and blinked. I walked over in uncertain steps, everyone silent behind me with wide eyes. As I got closer to her she blinked a couple times and I lurched forward and grabbed her hand causing her to jump and look at me. I smiled, she was warm again, warmer than before.

            “Aki?” she whispered staring up at me as I leaned over her. She hesitantly raised up her arms and wrapped them around my neck and pulled herself up against me. My eyes widened momentarily before I adjusted my position so that one knee was placed on the bed while my other leg was on the floor supporting us. I wrapped my arms around the middle of her back and held her tight against me as she cried.

 

            **Yu's P.O.V.**

I jerked awake my heart pounding and my body covered in sweat. My breath came out in quick pants and my hands shook as I brought them up to my arms. My entire body was tense with fear and my eyes kept flickering around the train compartment. I was completely alone besides the since of dread I felt from the shadows.

            “It was only a dream.” I told myself over and over again, like it was chant of sorts. “Just a dream.” But despite telling myself this I felt myself doubting that, it was too real, no matter how you looked at, dreams, not even nightmares, were supposed to feel that real. I could feel the hands of the shadows as they tried to drown me and intense terror I felt as the jaws the large shadow closed around me. I jumped startled as a voice rang out overhead.

            “ _Now approaching Yasoinaba_.” the voice came from the speaker. “ _Now approaching Yasoinaba_.” I gave a shaky laugh and stood up breathing in deeply to calm my body, I'd have a lot of explaining to do if Uncle saw me like this, especially if it was just from a stupid nightmare. I knew it was stupid but it managed to calm me down enough to stop shaking. I wiped the sweat from my face and grabbed my bag from the overhead compartment and waiting for the train to come to a complete stop. As the doors opened I walked outside shivering at the cold February air. I clenched and unclenched my hands as I walked out of the train station almost bumping into Uncle in front of his car.

            “Hey.” he said looking at me up and down before meeting my eyes, I looked away and he sighed before taking my bag. “Might as well sit up front Nanako is asleep in the back..” he said tossing my bag in the trunk. I nodded and got in looking back at Nanako with a small smile, she was holding on tightly to the small bear I bought her before I left to go back to the city two years ago. I hadn't really expected her to hold onto and figured it'd just sit in her room, but it made me happy to see her holding onto it.

            “She loves that bear.” Uncle said climbing into the driver's seat. “She hasn't let go of the thing since you left, said it was gift from her big brother and she was going to carry it till he came back.” he looked over and smiled at me. “She's been looking forward to this day since she found out you were coming.”

            “I've been looking forward to seeing her again.” I said turning around to stare out the window. And it was true, I had been so looking forward to seeing Nanako and Uncle again, plus all my friends I had to leave behind, while it's true I talked to them a lot over the phone I still missed hanging out with them and talking face to face with them.

            “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Uncle asked after a few minutes. I looked over at him.

            “There isn't much to talk about.” I said, and it was true I didn't know what to say so I didn't. “Though I am sorry to impose like this.”

            “Don't be your family.” Uncle said with a quick glance. “And no matter what happened between my sister and your father you'll always be welcomed here.” I shrugged and laid my against the cold window. “Sadly these things happen and are becoming common, but they still love you and you'll always have a home, that I will make sure of.” I nodded but still didn't say anything. Over the summer my parents decided to get a divorce, it came as a shock to a lot of us especially me, despite living with them I didn't even know they were having problems. After they announced the divorce plans they started fighting, I would normally leave when they did but it started happening so often I began dreading coming home. One night I remember my mom asking my dad what they were going to do with me, neither of them had any answers, that same night I called Uncle and asked him if I could come stay with him. He agreed without hesitation and even said it'd be better for me if I did, what I didn't know was that after I hung up with he called my mom and yelled at her but didn't tell her I was coming over. That was about a week ago, during that time I bought a train ticket and Uncle enrolled me into my final year at Yasogami High School, I was thrilled to be able to go back to the same school I went to before and plus all of my friends were still going there.

            My heart dropped when I thought about my friends, they had no idea I was coming back tonight, actually they had no idea I was coming back at all. Every time I would talk to them I had no idea how to bring it up and so I ended up putting off telling them continuously. They would defiantly be surprised when I text them and tell them that I'm in Inaba. I thought for a moment, I would have to tell them tomorrow, since tomorrow was Sunday, February 3rd the following day I started back at school. They would be pissed if that's when they found out, actually they'll probably still be mad at me.

            “Yu?” Uncle asked breaking me out of my thoughts. “Did you hear me?”

            “What?” I said looking at him slightly dazed. “No, sorry I was thinking about school.”

            “I said you're friends promised to come over to play with Nanako tomorrow.” he repeated looking at me. “Did you not tell them you were coming back? I told Nanako not to say anything to them since they didn't seem to know.”

            “Oh.” I said looking back out the window. “No I haven't told them I was coming back yet. It never seemed like a good time.”

            “When is there a bad time to tell you're friends you were coming back?” he said shaking his head and looking back at the empty road. “You don't have to tell them why.” he said quietly. “They're your friends, they'll understand if you don't want to tell them why you came back, they'll be happy just because you did. Even if it is halfway through your final year of high school.”

            “I know but it would have felt wrong if I didn't tell them.” I muttered. “How do you tell someone your parents decided they suddenly hate each other and neither one wants you?”

            “Well I supposed you can start by saying that.” he said with a small laugh. “They won't expect much in the way of a straight answer. They've known you for too long.” I smiled, that was true, Chie was always making fun of me saying I was more naive then Yukiko sometimes. Though Yosuke said there was no way that was possible. I let out a sigh I really missed my friends, since moving back to the city I've had a hard time adjusting which was unusual for me since I learned at a young age to adjust to new environments fast.

            “Maybe tomorrow I'll explain.” I leaning my head against the window again and ignoring the similar coldness of the water from my dream. “I was going to text them in the morning anyways to let them know I was back. Knowing them if I texted them tonight they'd all come rushing over tonight. Especially Kanji.”

            “No doubt in my mind.” Uncle laughed. “But he's a good kid, it shows that us adults are quick to judge by appearance huh?”

            “Everyone does that.” I said closing my eyes. “Even us teenagers, and sometimes that's more dangerous than adults prejudging.”

            “That's true.” Uncle said before going quiet again for a couple more minutes. “Are you sure there isn't anything else you want to talk about? When you came out of the train station you seemed awfully pale and even now you still are. You aren't coming down sick are you?”

            “No I'm just tired that's all.” I replied with a yawn that seemed to help convince him. He wouldn't understand the point behind my nightmare anyways and he didn't need to worry needlessly he was already doing so much for me as it is.

            “Well you can still take some cold medicine when we get home.” Uncle said and I felt happy when he said that, it did say it would always be my home as well but to hear him say it as we were on our way they made me even more happy. “Then you can go straight to bed and wash up in the morning.”

            For the first time in months I felt relieved, and almost happy. I felt like I was on familiar ground again. In the one year I was here I did more in my life than had in the rest of my years, I came to miss the excitement when I went back to the city, I really missed the open area and the clean air, hell I missed the fact that there really wasn't much to do out here. The quiet became so familiar the noise of the city left me with headaches for weeks after I returned. Or maybe I just missed the friends I made here, when I went back the people I had called my friends seemed like familiar strangers rather than actual friends and I realized how little I had in common with them.

            The car fell silent again and I smiled, I was going home and even if it was selfish of me, I didn't want to leave back to the city again, I'd rather live with Uncle and Nanako than with parents that hardly were ever there by no fault of their own. But even if it wasn't their fault it still felt bad that I found out more about my parents from Uncle than I did from them themselves. I glanced over at Uncle before looking back out the window. For now, I would ignore the fear from my nightmare, and the dread of what was going to happen in the future. For now I was going to be happy and relieved and just act normal like I did before, sure there were going to be some differences and it was going to be awkward at first but it'd disappear just like it did 3 years ago when I first came here.

            “Thanks Uncle.” I said before falling asleep.

 

_ Some hours later: _

            I woke up to the harsh bright sunlight of the sun, I blinked rapidly as I sat up, it took me awhile before I realized I was in one of the rooms in Uncle's house, actually by the looks of it I was in the same room I had stayed in before. It also took me awhile to realize I didn't remember even coming up to the room....or putting my pajamas on. I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window trying to remember what it was that woke me up, then I heard it again, downstairs I could hear laughter and I flinched before pulling out my phone and looking at the time, it was 1:30 in the afternoon, so much for telling my friends I was here before **_they_ ** got here. I stood up and stretched my bones cracking slightly, I walked over to the mirror and did a once over, I was wearing the usual gray sweats and white shit that I wore to bed and it took a couple times to get my hair to lay flat enough that I didn't look completely ridiculous. I let out a sigh before I quietly opened my bedroom door and tiptoed down the stairs, I knew Nanako, Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke, and Kanji wouldn't hear and I was easy able to pick out their voices so I knew none of them were near the stairs, the only voice I couldn't hear was Naoto, and that could mean one of two things; one she wasn't here, 2 she was hear being her quiet self, and since Kanji was here I'm pretty sure she was too.

            “Nanako you've been getting so tall!” I overheard Chie say.

            “Haha really?” Nanako laughed pleased with complement. “I want to be as tall as big brother soon.”

            “I don't think anyone but Kanji can beat him at that.” Yosuke said with a sigh and I could imagine him shrugging like he always did. “Heck I'm still shorter than him.”

            “Only by a little Yosuke.” Yukiko laughed being the only to find some kind of humor in what was said.

            “Seriously Yukiko?” Chie said with a small giggle.

            “Speaking of senpai,” Kanji said speaking up again. “Have we decided when we're going?”

            “Going?” Nanako asked sounding confused, I stiffened, going where?

            “I was thinking next week when we have that break for the inspection*.” Chie replied. “We won't be in school and we'll have most of the week to spend with Yu.”

            “That's a great idea.” Yosuke said. “And it's not like I'll be doing my homework anyways so I'm good for it.”

            “Yosuke I don't think you should admit that.” Rise said with a giggle. “But I'm ok with then too.”

            “Sound good to me.” Kanji said.

            “Me too!” Yukiko said with a laugh. “I miss Yu, get it “you”. Hehe.” Everyone let out a sigh even me.

            “Sounds fine.” Naoto said and I perked up my ears, she was normally a soft talked but even for her she didn't sound like she was anywhere near the stairs.

            “Hehe.” Nanako giggled.

            “What's so funny Nanako?” Yosuke asked.

            “Yeah Nana-chan?” Teddie said suddenly startling me. He was so quiet before that I didn't even know he was here.

            “I forgot my bear.” Nanako so and I could hear her run across the room towards the stairs where I was still hiding. I took another deep breath, something that seemed to become a favorite thing to do, and looked down at her as she came up to the stair. I smiled down at her as she looked up at me with a little confusion before she broke out into a wide grin. I scooped her up and stepped into the living room.

            “Looks you're not going to have to go far to see me.” I said giving them a small smile.

            “S-senpai!” Kanji stuttered looking shocked to see me.

            “SENSEI*!!!!” Teddie shouted loudly jumping up and down clapping his hands.

            “Narukami-kun.” Yukiko said looking at me from her spot on the floor beside Chie.

            “Hey partner.” Yosuke said walking up to me and draping an arm over my shoulder. “We didn't know you were coming back.”

            “Yeah sorry it was.....well it's been busy I haven't had time to tell anyone apart from Uncle.” I said with a shrug.

            “Senpai* it's good to see you again.” Naoto said quietly, I looked over and she gave me a suspicious look but didn't say anything. I smiled at her.

            “Still wearing the male uniform.” I said laughing. Please don't look at me like I'm a suspect of something.

            “I find it more comfortable than the female's uniform.” she smiled. “Not much has changed with us since you left that you don't know about anyways.”

            “When did you get back Yu?” Chie asked standing up.

            “Late last night.” I replied sitting Nanako down who then hugged my waist. “I was going to text you guys this morning but I woke up late and you were already here.”

            “That's ok senpai.” Kanji said leaning against the wall behind Naoto. “It's a nice surprise. But, why did you come.....ouch.” Naoto elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a look that made him fall silent instantly. Everyone glanced at me and I swallowed nervously and look down at Nanako who was still clinging to my waist, she was staring up at me with her head tilted, she didn't know what was going on and I didn't really want her to get involved in this kind of family situation.

            “Weren't you getting you bear?” I asked her kneeling down.

            “No I was actually going to see if you were awake yet.” she replied but nodded her head in understanding. “I have homework to do so I'm gonna go work in my room, if you need anything just call for me.”

            “I will.” I laughed patting her head gently. She smiled and ran to her room closing the door behind her.

            “What's going on partner?” Yosuke asked concern lacing his voice.

            “Nothing.” I said simply. This didn't concern them so I wasn't going to make a big deal about it. For now I was just going to tell them what they had to know, but I knew if Nanako was in here as I spoke she would worry more than she had too, she thought I was here just to finish the school year here and that my parents were really busy again. “My parents are really busy at the moment and Uncle and I both agreed that it would be best if I stayed here to finish my last year of high school.”

            “Then it's nothing serious?” Chie asked walking up to me.

            I paused for a moment before replying. “No, it's nothing important at all.” None of them appeared to really buy what I said except for Teddie, Kanji, and Yukiko. “Everything is fine.” I insisted.

            “Haha of course it is.” Yosuke said slapping me on the back. “There isn't anything you can't handle.”

            “Exactly.” I nodded in agreement.

            “Yu I don't think you were supposed to actually agree with that.” Chie replied shaking her head. Everyone started laughing and I smiled. This was normal, this was what I had become used to. Living in the country was more natural than living in the city. Being with my friends here in the country came more natural than being with the people who claimed to be my friends in the city.

            “It'll be good to have you back at school senpai.” Rise said beside Yukiko. “Things have been so boring here since you left.”

            Boring, maybe that's a good thing. We got too used to defeating shadows, I'm starting to wonder if that was a good thing. Suddenly my mind flashed back to the nightmare that I had on the train on my way here, I had one when I came to Inaba the first time, my nightmare then had been filled with a girl hanging upside down dead, and not too long afterward a girl was found dead hanging upside down from an antenna. I sat down on the floor in front of Yukiko and Rise as everyone else sat down as well, Yosuke sat down next to me followed by Chie. Kanji and Naoto both sat down to my right.

            “I have to ask you something Teddie.” I said slowly. Teddie looked at me and nodded his face slowly becoming serious.

            “What is it sensei?” Teddie asked looking at me.

            “Is there anything strange going inside of the other world?” I asked him clutching my hands. “Inside of the TV?”

            “Shadows?” he asked tilting his head. I nodded and he shook his head. “No, I haven't sensed anything out of ordinary. That world is normal right now.”

            “Normal?” Yosuke said raising an eyebrow. “Since when is anything in _that_ world normal?”

            “It's not like this world is normal either Yosuke.” Teddie retorted.

            “Yeah you've got a point there.” Yosuke replied with a shrug. “Anyways, partner why were you asking about that world?”

            “I was just wondering that's all.” I replied without meeting his eyes. If something was going on with the shadows then Teddie would know immediately right? So it was just a dream after all, I have nothing to worry about. But then why do I still feel so uneasy. “Just thought I'd ask since the last time I came here I ended up fighting shadows everyday as an after school activity.”

            “None of us has been back over there since you left.” Yukiko said softly. “So if the shadows have been acting up we wouldn't have any idea, Teddie might since he's kind of a shadow himself, but he might not.” I didn't think about that, since Teddie's been living in this world he may be losing his ability to sense shadows not that he is no longer directly connected to that world.

            “Ehh oh well.” I said with a laugh. “It wasn't important I was just asking.”

            “Well something's bothering you senpai.” Kanji said folding his arms. “Why not just spit it out.”

            “It's really not important Kanji.” I said looking at him. I shouldn't have brought it up they're never going to let it drop. “I really was just wondering.”            

            “You know something about that world don't you?” Rise asked. “I can tell, Kanzeon* tells me something has been bothering you and it involves the shadows.”

            Damn it. “Really I.....” I was interrupted when the phone started ringing, I looked back and stared at before Chie spoke up.

            “You're not going to get that?” Chie asked politely.

            “Yeah.” I said standing up and walking over to the phone. I took a deep breath, I wonder if taking to many deep breaths could kill you, I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

            “Yu?!” a female voice said hysterically over the phone.

            My heart plummeted and the world tilted upward at the sound of the voice on the other line and my voice shook as I answered. “Mom?”

*senpai: a term of respect for an older friend

*sensei: used to call a teacher or professor; in this case it means master

*Kanzeon: the Japanese name given to the Chinese goddess of mercy and compassion, Guan Yin. This is Himiko's ultimate form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter to Dark Waters, a story I'm really looking forward to writing. I will update as often I as I can but my schedule as always busy and always changing so I don't know when I'll be able. Chapter 2 part 1 will be the last upload I make today and Chapter 2 part 2 is being worked on right now.


	4. His Bruises-Her Pain Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu's secret comes out, he fears how his friends will react.
> 
> Minako's part will be in Chapter 2: His Bruises-Her Pain Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two:
> 
> Enjoy ;P

**Yu's P.O.V.**

“Mom?” I can feel my heart dropping to the bottom of my chest, her harsh breathing masking her angry voice that is threatening to spill over any second.

            “Where have you been?!” she shouts at me, her anger seeping through the phone and chilling every inch of my body. “You just up and disappear? Do you know how worried we were when you come to get you and you aren’t there? Your bag is gone, you things aren’t there, and your bed is cold as if you left sometime in the middle of the night.” I wince, I actually left in the early afternoon, Dad was watching TV and mom was complaining on the phone to some “friend” of hers about a job deal that wasn’t going the way she had planned. I haven’t even been gone twenty-four hours yet.

            “Are you there!?” she shouts loud enough that I jerk the phone away from my ear, by now all my friends are staring at me. Even Nanako, who came out of her room when the phone rang, is staring up at me, clutching her hands to her chest. I press the phone back to my ear and calmly begin speaking to her, hoping that I can at least get her voice down so the others can’t hear her anymore.

            “I'm at Uncle's house.” I tell her, focusing my attention on the calendar that is covered in Nanako’s tiny handwriting of upcoming events and dates, she has deemed important to know. “I told you I was going to finish my senior......”

            “You never said anything about leaving!” she hollers without giving me the chance to finish, I move the phone slightly from my ear again as her voice continues, growing in anger and volume. “Not once did you tell us you plan on leaving the house. How dare you lie now, saying you talked about this with us? Do you really think just because we’re your parents and you’ve always behaved before that we would let it “slide” this time? It doesn’t work that way Yu.” For a minute there, she almost sounded like a real mother scolding a younger child and not a crazed woman who could only see things that would result in her gain.

            “I never thought about that. I haven’t lied to you, I did tell you I was going to leave, I even made sure I mentioned it from time to time so you knew.” I say, keeping my voice level and quiet. “I told you a week ago even, that I would be leaving for Inaba, Uncle called you too and talked to you about. You told him it was ok.” I remember Uncle calling me shortly afterwards as I was walking home from school that he managed to convince my mother that I could come and stay with him. I never did ask him if she was sober at the time or if she was even paying attention to him. I guess I just took advantage of the situation and left, not wanting to stay longer than necessary, longer than I have to.

            “He never spoke to us about this!” she continues to yell, shouting at someone who I presume to be my father before returning her fury to me. Even though I can’t see her and I know she can’t reach me right now the intense dread continues to rise through my body, my anxiety skyrocketing as I squeeze my eyes shut and force my heartrate to slow down. “Don’t drag you uncle into this. He has nothing to do with this, this was your decision and no one else. You are already causing problems for him don’t continue to do so.” I resist the urge to hang my head in defeat and instead clench my hand into a tight fist, swallowing the bile that was rising in my throat. I was beginning to feel sick and miserable, I just want to hang up and crawl back into bed and hope I won’t have to wake up tomorrow.

            “But I did tell you.” I whisper closing my eyes and tilting my head up letting my hand fall limp to my side. “Uncle called you a couple days ago asking you if it was ok for me to come here for my last year of school. You just don’t remember. You've just been too.......busy, with other things to remember it. I should have left a note just in case, but I didn't.”

            “You're coming home immediately.” she cuts me off and I can feel what little restraint I have to keep a level head slip away. I look back down and lower the phone, staring at it. It’s like its on speaker anyways, everyone in the house can hear her voice. The issue of when to tell my friends what’s happening isn’t an issue anymore, they know, maybe not exactly what’s going on, but they know something’s up and they know whatever it is it isn’t going good. “You bought a ticket there, you can buy a ticket back.”

            “........” I don’t respond, I can’t, I have nothing else to say; nothing else I could say. I dug my fist into my forehead as the shouting continues on the other line.

            "You were never like this before. You weren't raised to act selfish, but since we sent you to live with my brother you were more withdrawn from us, you stayed more in the city than you did at home. There were times were it seemed like you were avoiding us. Did you meet some girl in the city or something? Who is she, what does her family do? You could have told us you know. Though I doubt you would have good judge in taste if you did find a girl. Is she pregnant? Is this what you’ve come to? Where you even thinking?” she shrieks on and I can do nothing more than stare at the wall, resigning myself to her thoughts that I can never defend myself from. Then she suddenly goes quiet on her side and I feel myself freeze, waiting for a blow that I know can never come here. “That’s why you suddenly left wasn’t it? Why you never said anything to us? And those good for nothing friends helped you, I should have known they would be involved. The few times I called, I could always hear them on the other end making so much racket, like they were heathens. Though in the dump of a town I sent you to, I’m not surprised they act that way. Nasty people are those who come from places nowhere even close to other civilizations. I should have put more thought into where I was sending you. And with all those murders that were happening, for all you know those kids where in on it, I heard a student had been arrested for killing a teacher….

“Shut up!” I yell at her and everything becomes quiet on her side and I clench my fist tighter, feeling the sting as my nails break the surface and a warm stickiness begin covering my fingers.

“Yu!” Yosuke cries as the others also let out a protest, whether from the blood or my sudden snap I don’t know and I shake my head, they go quiet just staring at me. I can tell, I can feel their eyes on me.

“Wha-” she starts her voice icy but I cut her off. The damage is already done, I see no point in keeping quiet anymore.

“Just shut up!” I say, making my voice as strong as possible and straightening up. “I don’t particular care what you say about me, I’m used to it, you never had anything good to say. I gave up on trying to please you a long time ago, I just went with it because I didn’t think I had any other choice. You were my mother, what else was I supposed to do? Where else could I go but to your side whenever you decided to remember you had a son. I knew I could never be the perfect child for you, I accepted that fact. But after coming here and living with Uncle and my cousin, I realized it wasn’t that there was a problem with me, but with you. It wasn’t me who was doing something wrong, it wasn’t me who didn’t know how to act like a son. It was you who didn’t know how to act like a mother. My Uncle showed me that, I realized it wasn’t normal for a high school student to never speak, to do nothing but study and work. I always thought having friends or any kind of acquaintance outside of a business deal to be pointless. But I was wrong, it was fun. It was fun to go hang out in a mall just for the hell of it, or eat lunch together. It was fun to play on a team because you experienced things you couldn’t get anywhere else. It was fun talking on the phone at night because someone saw something funny on TV and you had to let a friend know.” As I continue to talk to her I remember everything I did last year with my friends, how being with them opened my mind to what its really like to just be normal and not have to worry about everything and pleasing everyone. As I continue to pour everything out to her, I realize, I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to be with my mother and father, I want to be here, where I have friends and a family that cares if I’m alive or dead. I realize, I love this feeling, I don’t want too loose it, sure I got into some trouble last year and I got scolded for it, but it was because I did something stupid not because I did something.

“So say what you like about me, but don’t say a thing against my friends or Uncle Dojima and Nanako.” I say with as much force as possible. “You don’t know a thing about what happened here last year, my friends had nothing to do with the murders, even Nanako was targeted and they wouldn’t do that to her. And yeah a student did get arrested for killing a teacher, but he was a creep who was lonely and desperate for attention that he never received. And no I didn’t get a girl pregnant, I don’t even have a girlfriend; my friends didn’t help me get here because I never even told them I was returning to Inaba. I stayed in the city as much as possible because I hated being around you, I hated being near you. I was done and I was tired. I was tired of the fighting, of you screaming at me and hit…” I stop and my eyes widen whipping around staring at the others who immediately caught onto the fact that I had said something I shouldn’t have. I gripped the phone tighter and completely turned from them only to come face to face with Uncle and immediately broke out into a cold sweat, his eyes were narrow and I could almost see the wheels in his head spinning. I want to hang up, I want to run, I don’t want to be here right now. I almost hang up when she speaks again.

“You are so selfish.” she says through her teeth. “You have the nerve to say that too me after I’ve taken care of you for nineteen years even though you have never once been grateful. I let you live here because I’m your mother and I took responsibility for that fact, I could very easily have given you up for adoption or handed you over to another family. I did all that and you still think its ok to treat me this way?”

            “It would have been better if you just had given me up to someone else.” I tell her, cradling my bloody hand to my chest. I can’t feel the burning anymore, just my heart pounding in my chest and ears as the adrenaline continues flowing through my system. Blocking any pain and telling my mind to run, to run away from this mess. “At least then I may actually have parents I can be proud of and talk about, but I won’t ever be able to do that because I’ll never be able to be proud of you. I can, however, do this, I’m not going to come back to you, and I’ll never live with you again. Even if you do drag me back, I’ll fight, I’ll keep running away, for a whole year until I don’t have to go back to you anymore. So you can wait for me to get off that train all you want, I won’t get off. You can come here and try to force me back, but I won’t go. I’m going to finish my last year of high school here and then I’ll find a home of my own. But I promise, it’ll never be near you or dad.” I hang up the phone so fast that it falls to the ground and I just stare at it. Trying to wrap my mind around everything that has happen. I feel a hand on my shoulder and jerk slightly.

“Go sit down Yu.” Uncle says picking up the phone. “Nanako get the first aid and disinfectant, then go to your room, keep the door shut till I tell you to come out.” She nods and takes off upstairs to the bathroom as Yosuke places his hand on my arm and guides me to the couch and forces me to sit. I hunch over and place my head in my lap clutching my hand and breathing deeply. As the rush passes the pain in my hand gradually increases and I keep my hand in a fist as I hear Nanako return. I imagine her handing it to Uncle fast as her bedroom door shuts only a few seconds later. I hear heavy footsteps and look up as Uncle sits on the table in front of me and opens the box and takes out a cotton ball and glances around the room. “I don’t care if the rest of you stay but Yu and I will be a having a conversation and I don’t know if he wants you to hear it or not.”

“I don’t care.” I say quickly, I went too far, I said too much, there’s nothing they don’t know now. What difference will it make if they hear it again? “They already heard it all anyways, I’ve got nothing left to hide.” I sit up straight and look at everyone with tired eyes. They glance at each other and sit down, but none of them sit next to me except for Yosuke who is already sitting right next to me leaning forward with his hands together and elbows on his knees, staring at my hand now covered in blood. Uncle sits still for a second staring at me and I keep my eyes on my hand, letting him come to whatever thought he wants. I hear the bottle being open and see Uncle sit the cotton ball on his knee before cradling my injured hand in his, he forces me to open my palm and I hiss as my nails move out of skin and he begins dabbing at the blood and wound. I don’t make a sound or move after that as he continues, despite the pain it causes. I know how to handle this small amount of pain, though it doesn’t make it go away. Once he’s done I can see the damage I did to my hand. There are long and deep looking cuts in my hand, at some point I managed to completely scratch my palm up.

He sits back and again and covers the cotton ball with the disinfectant before applying it to the cut. I shiver at the coldness but say nothing, waiting for him to speak. I can still feel a since of dread in my stomach that has yet to disappear. He remains silent before finally taking a breath and speaking. “That was your mother right? She wants you to come home?” I’m a little surprised by the question but answer anyways, knowing he’s only avoiding the real question as long as he can.

            “Yeah, she doesn’t remember us telling her I was coming here.” I say quietly leaning back and stretching my arm out, staring at it in disinterest. “She’s been really….busy lately…she doesn’t remember the conversation. I was reminding her and she got a little heated.”

            “After all that and you’re still going to try and defend her?” Kanji asks with a frown. I don’t look at him and continue to stare at my hand.

            “I have to, she’s my mother” I whisper. “No matter what she does.”

            “That may be but she doesn’t deserve you defending her.” Kanji says before receiving an elbow in the side by Naoto to be quiet.

            “Kanji’s right.” Uncle frowns, going over the cut again with disinfectant. “You have no need to defend her, no cause. You owe her nothing.”

            “She kept me.” I say in response. “Even if it would have been better if she hadn’t, she still did. I owe her that much.”

            “Keeping a child isn’t something someone should repay another for.” Uncle glances up at me. “Especially if that child is the one you give birth to.” I remain quiet as Uncle finishes bandaging my hand, wrapping a long white bandage tightly around me palm before standing up and heading to the bathroom. I drop my hand to my side and just let it lie on the couch. The silence stretches until Uncle returns and sits on the couch beside me. Yukiko is the one who finally breaks the silence.

            “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Yukiko asks, looking up from the floor beside Chie with sad eyes as she tries to process everything she heard only minutes before.

            “You mean why didn’t I just tell you?” I say with a bitter smile playing on my face. “You weren’t supposed to know. I was going to tell you, I kept telling myself I was going to explain everything. But…I guess, I never really believed I was actually going to. I made myself believe coming here meant it was over, that I didn’t have to put up with her anymore. Guess I should’ve known better.” I give a bitter laugh at the end.

            “You didn’t have to explain.” Yosuke says slowly, like he’s treading on ice that’s about to break at any moment. “All you had to say was that you need to come back, any one of us would have come to get you, to help you. No questions asked.”

            “I could have.” I agree, it’s not like I never gave that idea a thought. But it wasn’t that simple, they should already see this. “And I could have given my mother a real reason to go after you guys. By involving you I could have given her a reason to go after and cause a lot of trouble with your families. She has more connections than you think, she could easily put every one of your families out of business and make it extremely hard, it not impossible, for any of you to get somewhere in life after school. Besides, everyone thought we were the perfect family, I couldn’t shatter that illusion. I would let so many people in the family down, I didn’t want to feel responsible for that….I didn’t want that burden.”

            “They could be charged with child neglect….and abuse…” Naoto said, tip-toeing around her words. “The blame wouldn’t fall on you but on them. No one should put up with that just so the parents can have a good image.”

            “She’s right.” Uncle says, lighting a cigarette and turning to look at me. “And since she brought up the subject. Want to say what all she did?”

            “No I don’t.” I stiffen as he turns the topic to what I was dreading.

“I told you this house will always be open to you.” Uncle says, still watching me. “It always will be, when you called and said you wanted to come back because you couldn’t handle the arguing anymore I immediately agreed, I never asked any questions or thought anymore about it. Maybe I should have.”

“I didn’t lie.” I tell him immediately, just barely glancing over at him. I didn’t want him to think I was lying about that and then take back his offer of letting me live here. “I was done with all the arguing, between mom and dad, and between her and me.”

“I never said you lied.” Uncle replies. “But is that all that you wanted to escape from?” I remain quiet and he gives a loud sigh of irritation. “Then I’ll just ask right out, has your mother or father ever hit you?” I flinch at the question but remain silent, not meeting anyone’s eyes. The living room falls silent as everyone waits for my response. “Yu, this isn’t a question you don’t have to answer, you need to tell me if they did or not.”

“No.” I say before he can even fully finish the sentence. “No, they never did anything.”

“That’s not what it sounded like you were going to say.” Uncle says, leaning forward and I tense up even further. Uncle knows I’m not telling the truth, even Naoto could probably tell; maybe even the others.

“It wasn’t often, just once or twice.” I whisper and I can feel Yosuke jerk next to me. “It was when she was drunk. But that was it, nothing to get worked up and cause problems over.”

“Senpai….” Naoto says sadly, and I glance up at her. She doesn’t look at me and waves her hand across the floor. “Abuse is abuse.”

“Abuse is long term.” I say sternly, dropping the conversation. “It’s not something to be concerned over now, it’s done.”             “Alright.” Uncle says quickly with a nod putting his cigarette out. “You’re right, it’s over; you aren’t going back so we’re not going to worry about this anymore tonight.” I relax slightly and Uncle stands up. “Yu, come here, I need to talk to you.” I stand up slowly and follow him outside and stand next to his car.

“I have to head back to work now, I just came by to see how you were feeling.” he says, leaning against the car. “But before I leave I want to make sure you understand something; what your mother and father have done to you, everything…even what you haven’t told me,” I look away and hear him sigh. “None of it was your fault, and what happens from here on out will be unavoidable but it won’t be your fault. And I’ll explain that as much as need be, but none of what’s happening now or what will happen is your fault.”

“Look, it’s over now. So please don’t worry about this anymore.” I tell him, giving him a wry smile. “Besides you’ve done enough, I can’t ask more of you than I already have. Besides she’s your sister. It wouldn’t be fair to you or Nanako to get caught up in all of this.”

“Enough Yu.” he says sternly. “You shouldn't have had to ask, you shouldn't have had to go through any of this. You're parents abandoned you, and that's harsher than I meant it to sound but it's the truth. I won't ignore that, you're a great kid and I'm not going to let this slide. And she may be my sister, and that’s why I won’t stay quiet about this; she may not like what I have to say, but she will listen to me. When did she want you back?”

“By tomorrow.” I reply, rubbing my arm. “But I told her I wasn’t going to return. That I had no intentions of going back. She definitely wasn’t thrilled with that answer. “

“I imagine not.” he shakes his head. “If you’re smart, you won’t go back.”

“I already made it clear to her I wasn’t.” I tell him again. “Which is why there’s no need to make any more of an issue than it already is. She’s not actually going to do anything. She’ll come up with some kind of lie and eventually it’ll die away. It’s not like any of this is worth it anyways.”

“Yu, this isn’t some argument that’s just going to go away.” Uncle says opening the car door. “It’s something that’s going to have to be dealt with. Listen, just go inside and rest up, you haven’t seen you friends in almost two years, I’m sure you want to catch up with them. They’re worried about you, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that face on them before.”

“Yeah.” I mumble. That face was one they always wore when we had to enter the T.V. world to save the “victim”. Not that Uncle would know that.

“There’s no point in you going to school tomorrow.” Dojima says quickly. “You’ll only go for three days before you’re off for a week for some inspection the school wants to run.” Dojima mutters under his breath something about teachers not knowing anything about saving time and gets in the car and rolls his window down to tell me one last thing. “You don’t have to stay cooped up inside, do whatever you feel, I’m sure your friends are ready to hang out with you like old times.” He sends me a smile and drives off. I stand there for a second and turn around coming face to face with Yosuke.

“You listened.” I say simply and he nods.

“You make it sound like this is all something you deserved.” Yosuke pauses in his words and walks up to me. “Saying that it’s not fair to Dojima and Nanako; but it’s not fair to you either. You’ve been directly hurt by all of this…emotionally and physically…but Yu, you can worry about us all you want, but none of this was fair to you either, and every single one of us is also worried about you. And no matter what may happen in the future, regarding this ordeal or any other, we’ll stand beside you and we’ll do whatever it takes put things straight again. We’re not going to walk away from this. We’re a team partner, nothing’s going to change that. Besides, Dojima’s a cop, no matter how many connections you mother may have, she can’t blackmail the law.” Yosuke drapes an arm over my shoulder and starts walking back inside the house. I want to believe Yosuke, that Uncle will be able to handle this situation, that I will finally be free of my parents. I desperately want to believe that this is one less thing I’ll have to really worry about. But deep inside, I know it’s not going to work out this way.

**Dojima’s P.O.V.**

I pull into the parking lot of the station and turn the car off. The drive over was shorter than usual and tenser. My thoughts entirely on the situation at hand and what all I will have to do to keep my nephew safe from his own mother. When I took him in, I never expected this kind of a situation to happen. It’s been a long time since I last spoke to my sister, well two years anyways, I never thought she would be capable of abuse or neglect ever. But unfortunately that’s what is happening, Yu’s not the type to make this kind of stuff up for attention, he was hurting in more ways than one and I was going to put a stop to it. If that means taking custody of him, then so be it. I’ll do what I have to, he saved Nanako, and brought us back together. He’s to kind of a kid to go through something like this, I don’t want to change his look on life, not for the worst anyways, like I had seen it do to so many other kids.

I pull out my phone and dial my sister’s number, tensing up as it went through. I only got in two rings before she picks up and begins to shout in a voice I have never heard from her before.

“What?!” she yells and I immediately jerk the phone away from my ear, slightly put off guard.

“Sister.” I reply sternly, bringing the phone back to my ear. I keep my voice tight and straight, making it clear I’m not happy with the situation going on.

“Oh, you.” her tone quickly becomes one of boredom and I hear a glass being sat down on the other end. “Listen, the boy will be returning tomorrow, no matter what he says. He knows better than to disobey me. He’ll be out of your hair…”             “He’s not going back.” I interrupt her, getting straight to the point. I won’t allow her to believe she’s going to win this, she may have always been able to before with Yu, but I’m entering this now, and she won’t have any more control over him. And it’s clear that she’s not even sober. Her speech is slurred and I can hear the sound of a bottle being sat on the table every few seconds. It makes me angry and sad to know that Yu had to speak to her like this only minutes before, and that sadness deepens when I realize this is probably how he always had to see her before. “He’s not going to come back to you, and he doesn’t want and I’m not going to allow you to force him or guilt trip into returning. Not now or ever again. No matter how old he become I’ll continue to defend him from you till I no longer have to. So I’m going to warn you now, drop all contact with him, it’ll be better for you and that damn reputation you care so much about if you do.”

“Are you threatening me?” she hisses and I shake my head. I can’t even begin to imagine the type of world Yu saw when he was with her. How did he manage to come out so positive and cheerful when he was surrounded by so much negativity? When we first met, yeah he was quiet, but never angry or resentful….except when I made Nanako cry, now I understand that there was more behind his anger than his growing attachment to my daughter. He went through the same thing on a much high level, he didn’t want Nanako to go through it too.

“No sister, I’m promising you.” I tell her, my voice filling with authority. “I can and will file a charge against you for child abuse as well as neglect if you continue to do this to Yu. He can’t handle any more of this, it’s too much pressure, his health has deteriorated just from him coming back here to get away from you. His nerves are shot, he can’t handle this pressure and anymore of it will land him in the hospital. He’ll never acknowledge this and he won’t ask me for any more help than this, at least not easily. As his parents you should both be ashamed how you’re acting. If you want to get a divorce fine, I couldn’t care less about that. But I will not allow you to drag Yu through this anymore. He’s your son for crying out loud! Did you forget that?”

“He’s no son of mine.” she says so calmly that I feel my heart tighten. “I didn’t raise him to be so selfish and impolite. I don’t know who he is now, but that selfish brat…isn’t my son.”

“The selfish one here is you!” I yell at her. “What’s he done to deserve any of this?! All he’s done is open up, when he first came here he was all stiff and quiet, he wouldn’t talk much and stuck to himself. He got a job and did nothing else but study. He made friends sure, but he never actually spent time with them, not like a normally teenager would. I took him two months before I saw him actually smile or laugh, two months before he began to act like a normal teenager. No teenager should live the way he was before he came here. You weren’t parents to him, you were people who used him for your own personal gain. As long as he made you look good, he was useful. There is no love in what you gave to him, just hatred and anger, and you instilled in him a sense of fear and the need to repay people for anything and everything. Before he came here I don’t think he even knew what it meant to be loved. But he showed it, and he did so much good for my daughter and I just by being around. But, after finding out about all of this, I think Nanako and I may have done more good for him.”

“What would you?” she begins to raise her voice again, becoming flustered. “He’s not you child. You had him for a year, you know nothing about him!”

“You’re wrong.” I tell her with a smile. “I may have only had him for a year, but in that year I was more of a parent to him than you ever where in the 19 years he lived with you. In that one year I learned more about him than you probably ever tried to.”

“You…” she trails off, I know she’s listening to what I’m saying, but sadly it’s too late to change how this is going to end.

“What’s happened to you?” I ask her with sorrow. “You were never like this, what you made become so bitter. What made you change?”

“Life made me change.” she says, strangely sounding kind all of a sudden. “The “real” world changed me, it’s not all happiness like I foolishly believed. There is no happiness in this world, only pain and suffering. I was showing that to Yu, I didn’t want him to grow up being blindsided by the lies that world sells to naïve, stupid boys like him. I was showing him the truth in this world. That no one is on your side.”

“No, you were the one selling him lies, not the truth. And because of that you just lost your only child. You’ll never speak to him again unless he wants to speak to you, you won’t speak to him again unless I’m present. And you can be damn sure his friends will be present to, they were not happy to learn about what you put Yu through, those “heathens” will always stand beside Yu, no matter who or what is their opponent. If I’ve learned one thing from them, it’s that when one person in their group is in need, every single one of them is right to lend whatever help that person needs. And you should know this as well, Yu is not leaving the house with you, he will never be alone with you and he is not going back with you. You can come tomorrow, but I won’t blame him if he never wants to see you again.”

“Oh, you can be sure I’ll be there tomorrow.” she hisses with so much venom I momentarily forget this is my sister I’m talking to. What happened to her? She used to be such a sweet, innocent, happy girl. Now she’s nothing but hate and malice.

“Fine.” I reply without missing a beat. “But you’ll have to wait, he’ll probably be meeting up with is friends tomorrow after school and they’ll want to hang around like usual. And I’m not gonna stop him from that just so a mother who doesn’t care can talk to him and try to force him back. Now if you don’t mind, I have to end this call, I have more important things to do that converse with you about how to raise your own child.” I hang up the phone and drop it to my lap before leaning against the hear rest and covering my face with my hands, letting out a shaky sigh. I could barely handle one phone call with her, I don’t know how Yu managed to handle so many conversations, face to face with her. Before coming here maybe he never noticed it, he didn’t know me or really anyone else in the family to contact for help. But after leaving he put up with this for another two years and only just a few days ago called me to ask if he can come back to live here. To say I didn’t hear the hurt and pain in his voice that he was trying so hard to hide when he called would be a lie. When he said he was only struck once or twice, it chilled me to my bones, I felt something break. And no matter how much or hard I wanted to believe that was true, I couldn’t. I knew it was more than once, and I willing to bet, it wasn’t always because they were drunk.

I can't ask him outright either, he'd only deny it and end up hiding himself away from me and then he might not tell me anything else, I don't want to go back to that. I'd have to check him for more bruises tonight while he's asleep. I should have done it last night, but I didn't understand just how bad it was until I saw heard their conversation and saw his expression, and now after talking to her, I should have acted much sooner. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't know it would be this bad. She wasn't even sober when I talked to her, that wasn't the sister I knew. The sister I knew couldn't wait to have a child, she so desperately wanted a son too, but after she became pregnant, little by little she started to change. I don't know when, but she slowly became a complete stranger and I didn't even notice.

**Yu’s P.O.V.**

_ 30 minutes later: _

            The living room was quiet as we all sat in a small circle, we had small conversations but they didn’t last before we became silent again. No one knew what to say, Nanako went to her room to escape the tense atmosphere and do her homework. For a while I thought we would all just sit in silence till Dojima returns, but slowly, Naoto looks up at me and asks me a question that makes me wish the silence would continue.

            “Senpai…” Naoto bites her lip before continuing. “Can you please, explain what’s going on? I mean I know what’s going on but…but why didn’t you tell us this sooner.”

            “You already heard everything there is to know.” I tell her. “There’s nothing more to say, and I didn’t want to tell you, why do you want to know so badly?”

            “We’re your friends.” Naoto meets my eyes. “We’re your friends, we heard what she said, that kind of stuff isn’t normal. Please senpai, why didn’t you want to tell us, we really would have helped you.”

            “I know, but it wasn’t something I wanted to drag any of you in to.” I look at the floor. “Like I said I kept quiet mostly for your sake, and my family’s sake. And, I did my best not to think about it, before coming here it wasn’t hard, I was used to their treatment and at some point I began to think it was normal. They would get angry and as long as I didn’t react it would end much faster…it wasn’t until I came here that I realized what I was going through wasn’t normal….and it wasn’t what I wanted. But I didn’t know how to get out of it, or if I even should. I didn’t care about my parents, I never really had a relationship with them. Even when I was little they were always away at work. I knew them as mother and father that was it, they weren’t really a mother and father, that’s just what I was supposed to call them, I never paid any mind to it, that’s how it always was. Another reason I never said anything was because, before coming here, my mother always told me being alone was best, that’s what she taught me from a young age, that you can’t rely on other people, that no one is really your friend they only use you to achieve a certain means. So I kept myself isolated, I played the part of that dumb, quiet kid that thought he was above making nice with others. I believe my mom, I didn’t need friends, and thus, I didn’t want any.”

            “That explains why you seemed so emotionless when we first met.” Yukiko nods, though she still has a sad expression on her face.

            “Really?” Rise looks at her. “He always seems so open to me.”

            “He wasn’t when we first met.” Yosuke say slowly, his eyes thoughtful. “And since he was from the city it started all types of rumors, some even I fell for.” he send me a guilty look before smiling. “He actually didn’t really to us till a few weeks into school, we hung out a little, but he always seemed distant. Grated we were kind of forced into a situation where we had no choice but to become friends.” The room went silent at his words before Kanji spoke up again.

            “I still find it hard to believe Senpai used to be closed off.” Kanji mutters with a large frown on his face.

            “I have to agree.” Naoto responds. “But we also didn’t meet him till much later.” We all remain quiet since no one was quite sure where this conversation was going.

            “So what made you decide to give friends a chance?” Chie asks after having been quiet for the majority of the conversations.

            “Like Yosuke said, we had discovered the T.V. world, we didn’t have a choice but to learn to work with each other and communicate.” I tell her with a shrug. “When I first transferred here I was told to sit next to Chie and she was curious about which led to me walking with her and naturally, Yukiko. That wasn’t my choice, but I went along with it because it was easier than saying no. A few days later Yosuke rode his bike into a trashcan and I decided to help him out of it. I don’t know why, but I did and that’s what got him to start talking to me.” everyone laughed, including Yosuke as recounted the tale.

            “It sucked too!” Yosuke laughed.

            “I figured you were used to it, you rain into a lamppost the day I transferred here.” I laugh.

            “Dude!” Yosuke acts horrified and looks at me. “You saw that…dammit…I thought no one saw that.”

            “A lot of people did.” I shake my head. “I’m shocked you didn’t seem them staring at you.

            “Well that’s pretty embarrassing.” Yosuke scratches the back of his head.

            “But why did you continue to talk to us Senpai.” Naoto asks with curiosity. “I understand when you had to talk to us about the case and you did that a lot. But you also hung out with all of us outside of the case too, you even helped each of us with our own personal problems.”

            “That’s true.” Yosuke agreed. “You even hung out with Kou and Daisuke, and that short girl from band and some others. They all had nothing to do with the case.”

            “I guess I just got used to the idea of being around people and being criticized for every little thing.” I say thoughtfully, resigning to the fact that these are questions I will answer sooner or later. But enough was enough, after this I’m done and moving on. “It was nice not being judged or thought of as being better than everyone else. And I knew in the spring I would to return back to my own solitary life of hate and distrust. I wanted to make the most of it while I could.” Everyone looks down as I finish this and give a small sigh. “Listen, this is why I didn’t want you guys to know. I knew all of you would get depressed and make a big deal over it.”

            “But Yu…” Chie and Yukiko both protest but I hold up a hand and stop them.

            “And I get it. I really do.” I give a small, exhausted smile. “And I’m happy you all care enough to ask, I really am. But I came **_here_** to **_escape_** all of the things we’re talking about. It’s over now, and no matter what, I’m not going back. She’ll come and she’ll leave, she’s not really going to try to get me back, she doesn’t care one or another, she never did and she’s not going to start now. As long as she knows I won’t interfere with her job she couldn’t care less about what happens to me. So please, no more about this, I’m tired and I just want to hurry up and move on.”

            “Yu’s right.” Yosuke says standing up with a stretch. “Let’s not talk about this anymore until something actually happens. Plus it’s getting really late. I don’t know about the rest of you but I still haven’t done my homework and I’m sure Nanako wants to spend some time with her big bro before school tomorrow.”

            “Do you ever get your homework done in a timely manner Yosuke?” Yukiko asks as everyone stands up.

            “Just be happy I get it done.” Yosuke replied. “Since you won’t be at school tomorrow, let’s hang out afterwards if you’re feeling up to it. If not we’ll come hang out here instead. It’s not rush, you’re back now so we can always hang out when you feel up to it.”

            “I’ll meet you all by the gates after school lets out.” I follow them all to the door with the promise to meet them after school tomorrow.

            “Sounds like a deal.” Yosuke says before becoming serious and looking me straight in the eyes. “But I am going to say this partner, if your mom does end up showing up, you better call us. I’m sure your uncle can handle it, but we want to be here to. To make it clear he’s not the only one standing on your side.” I’m taken back by his seriousness and against my better wishes, I agree to call him if she shows up. “Good, I can let the others know and we’ll be over as fast as we can. Which won’t take long. Just make sure you call.”

            “Yes Senpai.” Naoto says looking at me as well. “You’re no longer alone in this, and you won’t be. Well face her together with you.”

            “That’s right Senpai.” Kanji says throwing his fist in the air. “You helped us with our problems, and saved every one of us in that world and took care of us pretty much. Now we’re gonna help you.”

            “That’s right Sensei.” Teddie nods, acting like a wise man all of sudden. “You just leave all of this to us.”

            “Teddie, we’re supposed to be making him feel better.” Yosuke grabs Teddie’s arm. “We’ll see you tomorrow partner. Come one Teddie you still have chores to do.” I smile as they all walk away, waving at me as they leave. Laughing and teasing Teddie as they went. For once, I actually feel peaceful, it made me both happy and scared, I don’t know how long this feeling will last.

_ 2 hours later: _

            Nanako lets out a large yawn beside me on the couch and leans into my arms, her eyes slowly closing as the quiz show we were watching comes to an end. I look down at her as she lets out another yawn and I give her a smile as her eyes keep closing only for her to suddenly open them again in an attempt to stay awake.

            “Alright Nanako, time for bed.” I pick her up as she rubs her eyes. She wraps her arms around my neck and I slowly walked across the living room and into here room. I laid her down on her pinks and cover her with the comforter before getting ready to leave. As I go to leave I feel a tug on the back of my shirt and I look back at here. She’s looking up at me with tired eyes.

            “Teddie…” she whispers and it takes me a minute before I realize she’s asking for the bear I gave to her before I left. I look around until I find it on her dresser and I bring it over to her. She hugs it close to her and whispers goodnight.

            “Night Nanako.” I say turning off the light. I’m about the shut the door when I hear her speak again.

            “Welcome home…” she says slowly, falling asleep. “Big bro…” she smiled before her breathing evens out and falls fast asleep. I smile and shut the door quietly before turning off the lights in the house and heading up to my room and falling fast asleep as well.

            **Dojima’s P.O.V.**

By the time I’m return home it’s four in the morning. All the lights in the house were off and the only sounds came from outside, a relief to me. I drop my workbag on the floor and kick off my shoes. I enter the living room and open the door quietly to Nanako’s room, I walk up to her bed and give her a goodnight kiss, giving a quiet laugh as she clutches onto her bear that Yu gave her. I walk back to the living room and flip on the light and glance towards the stares as I take off my jacket and loosen my tie. I felt a sinking feel in my chest as I look up towards his room, I’ll have to check him now, before he wakes up. I can’t take the chance that he’s not going to sleep in. He might wake up to see Nanako off to school and I don’t know if he’ll go back to sleep. Right now, I know he’s sound asleep. I sigh and slowly make my way upstairs, I open his door and wince as it gives out a small creak before I step inside. I allow my eyes time to adjust before I tiptoe my way towards his futon. I kneel down beside him, his hair fell in front of his eyes and his breathing was much more peaceful than last night when I had to carry him to the futon due to his fever. Luckily his skin was pale enough that that I’m able to make out any details on his skin despite the darkness of the room where the only light source came from the moon shining in through slanted blinds. I bring out my phone and turn the screen away from his face so that I can have some additional light to be able to see any old marks that might have begun to fade. The top blanket conveniently is resting at his waist and I hold my breath as my heartrate picks up, pounding loudly in the quietness of his room.

            I reach out and lift the hem of his shirt slowly, I know that with most cases of child abuse, if they leave bruises they’re carefully to make sure they aren’t where they’ll easily be seen. At least if they were smart. I wince at my thoughts, abusing children is never smart, but in a way that though is correct. Plus I already had a good look at his arms and face when I was bandaging his hand, and I didn’t see anything on him that resembled a bruise or fresh scar. I knew my sister was smart enough that was going to risk her reputation by leave a bruise on her child where anyone can see it. I look closely for even the slightest discoloration in his skin. I was praying with all my heart that I would find nothing, and for a few seconds I feel relief in knowing that I was wrong in my assumptions. But that relief didn’t last long as I come across an oddly shaped dark shadow that lies on the middle of his upper back. I bring my phone closer and switch the screen back on. I bit my tongue as I stare at a large bruise that looks like it’s only a few days old, he had to have received it only a day or two before he came here.

            I turn my phone off and slide his shirt back down, I already know there’s more, I saw them as I was moving my phone down, in a few days those bruises would become darker, and I’m sure they were causing him some pain. Mentally and physically. I hung my head as I pulled the blankets back up to cover him. How could I not have noticed this before, how had I not noticed them when he first came here. There was no way this could have just started happening when he went back home. Did it really happen just like that? So suddenly?

            To be honest I try not to think about child abuse or neglect, I have seen it too much and it never becomes easier to see. And even then, I never would have thought my sweet, innocent sister would be capable of something so horrible. She use to never be able to hit a fly let alone another person, and now she’s leaving bruises on her own son. I gently push Yu’s hair back out of his face and stand up making my way to his door, I give him one last sad look before I shut it behind me. As I think about the bruises I remember the look on Yosuke’s face when Yu admitted to being hit. It was a look that even made me go cold, Yosuke had a look of pure hatred on his face, and I knew it wasn’t directed at Yu or anyone else in the room. But at a woman he had never even met. I knew all of his friends would be there for him, but I also knew that Yosuke will always be the first to stand on Yu’s side. No matter when Yu’s mother gets here, Yosuke will be here as well, and he’ll be on Yu’s side no matter what.

            **Yu’s P.O.V.**

_ 3 days later: _

            “Thank you.” I bow as I step out of the Faculty Office and shut the door. I am officially enrolled back into school for one final year. I’ll start back after the three day break for the inspection. The school was already empty as the students were quick to clear out, eager to start their break. I let out cough I was holding since walking into the office as I made my way to the doors.

            “You still don’t sound any better Senpai.” Rise’s voice came to my ears. I look up and the see the gang all standing in front of the doors, each with their bags slung over their shoulders, ready to leave.

            “You didn’t have to wait.” I tell them, following them out the door.

            “Course we did Senpai.” Kanji replies. “It would be no fun if you had to walk home by yourself.”

            “What are we gonna do today Senpai?” Rise moves to my left while Yosuke takes my right and the others file in.

            “Uncle wants me to come back.” I cough harshly into my sleeve, stopping briefly as I almost double over. My cold keeps getting worse and worse.

            “I’d have to agree with him Yu.” Chie remarks as my fit subsides. “Your cold isn’t getting any better.”

            “Yeah, I know.” I shrug, I told Uncle that if my cold didn’t clear up in a week I would go see a doctor, right now I’ve only had it for three days, I’m sure it’ll go away soon.

            “You shouldn’t put off a visit to the doctor.” Naoto says from behind me. “It may be something more than a cold.”

            “Jeez Naoto.” Rise sighs. “Talk about a depressing statement.”

            “I’m merely stating what I believe to be best.” Naoto responds evenly. I shake my head and continue on towards the Dojima Residence.

            “I’ll be fine. If it gets worse or doesn’t clear up in a week I’ll go see someone.” I promise them.

            “Are you up to us being at your house?” Yukiko asks quietly beside Rise. “I don’t want us to end up making your cold any worse.”

            “I don’t mind.” I smile at her. Its nice having them over, it was something I missed when I was back in the city. “But I apologize ahead of time if you all get sick.” I jokingly say. “You’ve been warned.”

            “Yeah we’ve been warned.” Yosuke tilts his head back and stares up at the sky. “So what is the plan, apart from hanging out at your house? Is Nanako going to be there today too?”

            “Yeah, I think so.” I reply back. “She was asking if you guys were coming over today, she said she wanted to hang out with you guys again.”

            “Ahhh Nanako-chan!!!” Chie and Yukiko cooed.

            “Nanako’s so sweet.” Yosuke says happily. “Hey, partner, whose car is that?” I look away from where Naoto and Rise were squabbling with each over. I feel my feet freeze and I come to a halt. A red car is parked in front of my Uncle’s house, a red car I am very familiar with.

            “Partner?” Yosuke asks coming to a stop a couple steps in front of me. Naoto bumps into me as I come to a sudden stop.

            “What’s wrong Senpai?” Naoto asks looking in front of me.

            “I guess she did come after all.” I mutter to myself. I force myself to continue walking, fighting the urge to run. I walk up to Uncle’s door and enter, the others following close behind me in silence. As soon as I enter Nanako runs up to me, tears pouring down her face.

            “You can’t go back!” she cries, wrapping her arms around my waist. I look up past Nanako to the woman staring back at me with cold disinterest as I soothed Nanako.

            “Hello mother.” I say softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, hopefully the next chapter will be up shortly. If you have any questions regarding the story shoot me a pm or comment and I'll get back to you.
> 
> ~Sakura
> 
> ;P Bye Bye

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy the story!!!
> 
> ~Sakura
> 
> ;P Bye Bye


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